98 CRANKING, BUT NOT STARTING

1998 Nissan Pathfinder • 178,000 miles

A few day ago in the morning, our 98 Pathfinder would crank, but not start. We changed 5 out the 6 spark plugs and it ran fine that night and the next morning until about 20 min. Into driving. Then, the car began to idle bad and acting like it was going to shut off. I arrived at work and when beginning to leave, it cranked and started but again idled bad while in park and drive and would shut off. Tried to have spark plug replaced, but no mechanic was willing and able at time. Attempted to drive home and it shut completely off coming down the road. No smoke, radio and all electronics would work, but would not restart. We replaced the 6th plug and all the wires and it will crank and not start. We listened for the fuel pump with ignition "ON" and you can hear it and clicking under hood. You smell fuel when trying to crank and spark plugs smell of gas. We ran the scanner tool and no codes are found. We tested the spark plugs and there is no fire to at least two of them. We have came to the conclusion it is either the crankshaft sensor or distributor. But My question is if it is the crankshaft, wouldn't we have received a code or could it be the ECU not giving it a code or the distributor rotor (cap looks brand new). Also, is there any way to test the distributor or crankshaft to narrow it down?

Get a helper disconnect a sparkplug wire or 2 and ground it to the engine atleast 3/16 away from ground-have helper crank engine over-do you have a snapping blue spark? If so-you have a fuel related problem, Do you hear the fuel pump come On when you turn key on? If not check fuel pump fuse and fuel pump relay if okay-check the fuel pressure to rule out the fuel filter/fuel pump/pressure regulator and listen to the injector/s are they pulsing or hook up a noid light. No snapping blue spark continue to troubleshoot the ignition system-power input to the coil/coil packs,coil's resistances,cap and rotor,distributor pick-up coil, ignition control module, cam and crank sensors and computer Note: If it doesn't apply disregard it and keep testing

Yeah we have tested the spark plugs and there is no spark. We have turned the ignition and the fuel pump cuts on. The fuses are ok. We need to know how to test the coil on the distributor, cap, or crankshaft. We hooked the scanner and no codes are pulling.